Those of you who have been following my work closely will understand that I was not able to be on the march today, as I'm in St. Thomas' Hospital, where I'm undergoing treatment for a serious and painful blocking of the blood supply to the toes of my right foot, caused by arterial damage. However, with my magnificent overview of the march from the 11th floor window of my hospital room, overlooking the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Bridge and today — crucially — the Embankment, where the march began at 12 noon, I'm able to confirm that this was undoubtedly the biggest protest I've ever seen, with the noble but ultimately doomed exception of the February 2003 demonstration against the Iraq War, which, with an estimated two million attendees, was by far the largest protest in British history.
For four hours today, however, the crowd of protestors surging purposefully along the Embankment, waving banners, bringing rainbow colour to the West End and making a lot of noise before heading west for a rally in Hyde Park, more than adequately fulfilled hopes that hundreds of thousands of protestors would turn up, and as I was writing this, mid-afternoon, the Embankment was still awash with protestors, all the way down to Hungerford Bridge and Charing Cross station. As a result, I'm very much hoping that the ideological butchers of the Tory government (plus their Lib Dem hangers-on) got the message that the British people are not happy with the cuts, and are not happy with the smug arrogance of David Cameron and George Osborne, who have no political experience and no mandate from the voting public for their savage cuts, whose targets include:

From the turnout at today's protest — and the wonderful atmosphere that I heard about from friends on Twitter, and from guests dropping by in person — it's clear that hopes that it would become an influential event have come true. As a result, we have had — as I and others always hoped — a protest much larger than its trade union origins, providing an opportunity for groups, organizations and individuals from all over the country to come together, to network, and, above all, to send a united message to the government not only that its policies are being introduced too fast, are too indiscriminate and too savage, and will cause widespread misery and suffering that is not necessary, but also that a significant proportion of the British people have seen through all the talk about "necessity" and "fairness" and "all being in it together," and want to see a revised economic basis for society.

This has not yet been adequately addressed by the mainstream political parties — and is only part of Labour's message, however much Ed Miliband tried to pretend it wasn't, by turning up at the rally in Hyde Park to deliver a speech in which he stated:

Our struggle is to fight to preserve, protect and defend the best of the services we cherish because they represent the best of the country we love. We know what the government will say: that this is a march of the minority. They are so wrong. David Cameron, you wanted to create the big society — this is the big society. The big society united against what your government is doing to our country. We stand today not as the minority, but as the voice of the mainstream majority in this country.

These were good points, and well expressed, although Ed Miliband's problem, of course, is that he was limited in how much he could praise Labour for "defend[ing] the best of the services we cherish" when — although Labour had indeed expanded the public sector, to great effect — the party had also done all it could to encourage and facilitate the robber barons responsible for the financial crisis of 2008 that created the excuse for austerity and cuts in the first place.

A harsher critic, speaking a more direct oppositional language, was Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, Britain's biggest union, who told the crowd, "You represent a spirit of resistance in every workplace and community that says we are not going to have our way of life killed so that the rich and greedy can live as they please."
Again, great words, but had I been able to take part in the protest today, I know I would have been on the lookout for opportunities for new coalitions of resistance to be created, not just including the trade unions and the best of the Labour Party. but also involving others, outside of or alienated by the mainstream, and/or unrepresented by unions, who need a more visionary project — a new politics, and a new political movement drawing on the lessons of the past but dealing with the present and the future, in which ordinary people's jobs are valued, in which working people are not scapegoated for the crimes of the financial elites and the tax evasion of the corporate giants, and in which those responsible for the financial crisis and for systematic corporate tax evasion and tax avoidance are made to pay up instead.

As is noted in the manifesto of UK Uncut, the biggest campaigning organization to have grown out of the cuts programme, which was involved in a number of occupations in central London today, including Fortnum & Mason's, and which essentially functions as a galvanizer and franchise for direct action against the banks and the corporations:

We are told that the only way to reduce the deficit is to cut to public services. This is certainly not the case. There are alternatives, but the government chooses to ignore them, highlighting the fact that the cuts are based on ideology, not necessity.

Government spending cuts will damage public services and put more than a million out of work. They will hit the vulnerable, damage communities and undermine much of what holds us together as a society.
Ministers say there is no alternative.

But both of the government’s two key decisions are political choices, not economic necessity.
Eliminating the deficit in just four years is a savage timetable that does not give economic growth the opportunity to raise the nation’s tax take. Indeed the deep cuts promised will depress the economy making deeper cuts necessary to meet this timetable.

Raising four pounds through cuts for every pound raised through tax — and doing most of this through a rise in VAT that hits the poor and those on middle income the most — is deeply unfair. The recession was made in the finance sector, yet banks and those now enjoying gigantic bonuses once again, are not being asked to make a fair contribution.
Yet none of these policies were put to the British people at the election, indeed we were told that there was no need for cuts in front-line services.

People round the country are already campaigning against these deep, rapid cuts. Students have shown their opposition to cuts, the end of EMAs and increases in fees. Parents and teachers have opposed cuts in school building. School sport, libraries and public woodlands all now have strong defenders. Few towns now don’t have their own campaign group.

The TUC’s March for the Alternative has two key aims.

First we want to give a national voice to all those affected by the cuts. This will be a huge event that in its breadth and support shows just how much opposition there is to the government’s programme. It will bring together public service workers and those who depend on good public services. Those involved in national campaigns, and those defending what is special in their own community.

Second we want to show that people reject the argument that there is no alternative.
Of course the recession did damage to our economy. But these deep rapid cuts are not the best way to solve our problems, and may well make them worse.

That is why it is the March for the Alternative — an alternative in which rich individuals and big companies have to pay all their tax, that the banks pay a Robin Hood tax and one in which we strain every sinew to create jobs and boost the sustainable economic growth that will generate the prosperity which is the only long term way to close the deficit and reduce the nation’s debt.

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About this blog

It was in the thirties, legend has it, that an old pioneer was asked how many good years Saskatchewan farmers had experienced, “Two”, he replied, “1916 and next year”.................................................. Next Year Country was a provincial magazine published by the Saskatchewan Waffle Movement in 1972 and was issued in various forms until 1983. This blog intends to contribute, not to a revival of the Waffle movement, but to the spirit of hope and optimism it reflected. We need this spirit again.